DIY Camo Dip Kit

[jerkin]

I wouldn't recommend purchasing this product. I was on the website looking around, 4-6 weeks to ship, $15 shipping and no mention if you are charged sales tax on top of that, no phone number if you have a problem or question and no company address, contact name or anything else. Sounds pretty shady to me. There are plenty of other kits on the net from legitimate companies.

[DuboisBeaver]

I can vouch for their service... Took about 5 days to get my kit in...

[XavierBK]

Drop the act, with some research into CamoDipKit.com anyone will be able to see through your charade. The guy goes around on different forums asking if people have tried it while plugging the website. Google it for yourselves.

As far as the kit goes I did order one because I wanted to dip the Crickett I bought for my daughter. She loves purple and CamoDipKit was the only one I could find that had a purple film. I just got my kit today and it only took a little over a week to arrive BUT the "90 minute instructional DVD" was just a blank CD, no content. I contacted the parent company, Hydraphics.com, and they are sending me a replacement. With that said, I wish I had found Hydraphics.com before hand because the kits are actually cheaper on there than from CamoDipKit.com.

I did, after I placed my order, find this review on YouTube that makes me question my purchase. I hope it works out well, for my daughters sake. Anyone around Lancaster have any experience doing these and would be willing to help a member out?

[dunno]

Shame, it could have been a really cool product.

[jerkin]

I tried to tell ya, lol.

[partsman]

save your money on this one my buddy tried it and its just like what the guy in the video review that dvd is horrible to watch uh uh uh is the most used word in the video its horribly produced but the product needs more r an d or something, you have to have just the right amount or it spits an sputters, i think with a better spray system it might work better.

[XavierBK]

I will say that the parent company, Hydrographics, has excellent customer service. As I already stated they offered to replace my defective instructional DVD immediately. I went ahead and found a copy of it online and gave the kit a trial run and was having the same issues the guy mentioned to in the YouTube video I embedded with the gun freezing up even when doing short passes.

Anywho, I sent off an email to the company expressing my dissatisfaction and received a reply very quickly asking me to call the company. I was given tips on how to try and improve my experience and he was going to offer sending me another spray gun and bottle of air at no cost but then he asked if I had access to a compressor. I told him I could get one and then he offered to send me a paint gun and more base coat at no cost. He said they don't have it listed on their site yet and thus, there are no written instructions but I could call them up when I get it for instructions on how to set it up and tips on using it.

We'll see what happens when the paint gun shows up but the companies customer service is top-notch so far.

[XavierBK]

Figured I'd give an update since I've used the product to the end now.

Following the instructions that come with the kit takes makes the procedure take days but I toiled all last weekend getting my daughters Crickett ready for opening on Christmas morning. I got started by setting myself up a makeshift paint booth and prepping the items to be painted. I decided I was only going to do the stock on the Crickett and a pair of pink ear pro.

As I said before, they had offered to send me an HVLP paint gun to try out. Unfortunately, they had asked me to call in for tips on setting it up but I didn't get it until after hours and I needed to get started right away in order to finish before Christmas morning. I tried to get the HVLP gun to work for me but I don't know if it was the gun settings or the compressor or what but it was hardly laying any paint.

In an effort to get the project done I set out with the original aerosol can and kept myself a pot of lukewarm water to warm the can if it became too cold. Keep in mind there is a life to this paint as you must mix it with a hardener so you can't really screw around. So I began by laying the base coat. I put about 4 coats on, having to stop and mix up more paint as I ran dry before I was happy with the coverage. After the base had tacked up I realized I should have put another coat or two on as I could kinda see through the base on the stock and the ear pro. Oh well, I was on a schedule.

With the base coat on and cured for 24 hours I moved onto the dipping stage, by far the most pain-in-the-ass part of this. I decided to set up shop in a large walk-in shower for this step. After I had my film cut and ready to go I began the dipping process in 92.3 degree water. I decided to do a single dip on the stock and it actually turned out pretty well. The butt of the stock got a bit faint as the ink spread a bit much across the waters surface because I was dipping too slow but it looks acceptable. The ear pro went relatively the same. I dipped both at the same time, one in each hand. I don't know if there was some strange current in my dipping tub but the film closest to me, again, spread out very fast. This resulted in one ear muff looking great while the other has a few problems. Overall, I thought my eight year old would be pleased.

After another 24 hours, onto clear. I decided I was going to mix up all of the clear they had sent in the kit and run the gun dry. This took about the entire 30 minute pot life they claim the paint has. I did have one very strange problem with the clear... it went on the stock just fine but as soon as I started spraying it onto the ear pro either it or the cured ink from the dip started wrinkling up. I'm not sure why it did this as all three items were done in the same fashion at the same time. Luckily it did this strange wrinkling pretty uniformly, almost like it was one of those textured paints, so it looks like it is supposed to be like that. Another 24 hours for the clear to cure and they'd be ready to wrap.

Overall, it was a pretty daunting task, but manageable. I wouldn't mind trying to dip something else in the future... but I'd definitely wait until the weather is nicer as the fumes from this stuff really filled the house. Even working in the closed basement with fans pushing air out of the cellar door to the outside fumes managed to work up to the third floor.

Here is a quick pic of the end result, remember, it's for an eight year old girl. My cell phone takes really crappy pics anymore for some reason.

[medsteele]

I'm sure she loved it, it looks quite good for a DIY kit.

[DuboisBeaver]

Here is a similar site that offers brand name camo dip kits like Realtree and Muddygirl - www.camoDIY.com